


balencing act

by Ashildrs



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Confessing Feelings, F/F, Fluff, Tightrope Walking, i ignored the events of king of scars for which i apologise, ninej, this is fluff and its cute, this was actually a request that i wrote like a year ago and never posted but i've edited so here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:27:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22114102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashildrs/pseuds/Ashildrs
Summary: nina and Inej go tightrope walking, Somehow it leads to a certain type of confession
Relationships: Inej Ghafa/Nina Zenik
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	balencing act

Inej’s laugh carried on the cold night air as Nina eyed the tightrope she had put up warily. It was only a few inches off the ground, and hardly dangerous. Nevertheless, it was highly unnerving to Nina. She ran her eyes over it again, reminding herself that she had requested this. Inej had been more than happy to oblige, but then struggled to keep how hilarious she found the idea to herself. 

  
“I know I won’t be any good.” Nina had protested, making a sour face at Inej. “But I also know it will be fun.”

The other girl had only laughed again and replied:  
“Oh, I’m quite sure it will be, and you could be good, you never know. Its just – well the image of you on a tightrope is quite funny.” The two of them had burst out laughing again. Nina and Inej both knew that the Grisha was no acrobat.   
Nina smiled at the memory, and her worry faded. When Inej finished hooking it up between the two trees securely, she hopped back over it and raised a brow at Nina. 

  
“Ready?”

  
“As I’ll ever be Wraith.” 

  
Inej grinned back and jumped up onto the tightrope with ease. Nina couldn’t hide her surprise as she didn’t even sway at the shaking beneath her feet. She’d seen Inej pull all sorts of impossible stunts, including climbing a streaming incinerator in the Ice court, but this still seemed incredible. She supposed Inej was in her element now, this is what she’d been born to do. Trained to do, in another lifetime. 

  
“Lesson one.” Inej began, looking down at her friend from the tightrope. 

  
“Let me guess?” Nina smirked. “Don’t fall off.” Inej snorted, still failing to lose her balance.

  
“It’s a good place to start, but it’s not as easy as it seems.” She replied, the ghost of a smile dancing on her face. “It’s best to start barefoot, so take off your shoes and will go from there.”

  
Nina obliged, slipping her expensive flats off her feet and turning her attention back to the trees. They had made their way back into Kerch’s grassier lands for the weekend. Nina had returned to Kerch for the summer, with the intent of visiting Inej, and the others too. She had spent a considerable amount of time in Ravka now, and it seemed fitting to return to the place she had felt most at home. Even if it had been in an unexplainably strange way. 

  
Had they been back in Ketterdam, and if she wasn’t rich beyond her wildest dreams, she might have been concerned about leaving her brand new 200 kruge shoes unattended. Out here, however. She felt it was quite safe. Tentatively she stepped closer to the taut rope. 

  
“Won’t it blister my feet?” She asked, throwing Inej a sceptical look. 

  
“Perhaps, but you asked for this remember.” The smaller girl answered, almost sliding her feet of the tightrope and letting it wobble. Nina scanned the rocking piece of rope she was about to walk on. She had asked for it she supposed. Either way, it was a perfect excuse to spend quality time with Inej. Inej slid forwards and put her left foot on the rope a second time. 

  
“Like this.” She said softly, “Try and align your big toe with your heel.” Nina frowned in concentration, and placed her own foot on the rope. Inej gently lowered hers off, obviously concerned about what the extra weight would do. The rope shuddered under her foot; Nina shrieked and threw herself backward.

  
Inej’s chuckle rung out as she recovered herself, managing not fall over. 

  
“Nina Zenik, the powerful Grisha who broke into the ice court and walked away is scared of a moving rope?” Inej raising a mocking eyebrow. Nina merely narrowed her eyes in response. 

  
“Don’t be mean! We all have skills in different areas!” She retorted, huffing. Moments later she had her foot back on the rope, and she didn’t startle at the movement this time. Inej stopped laughing and edged closer.   
“Just try to lift your other foot up, you’re barely off the ground so it can’t exactly hurt to fall. And if you manage that –”

  
“If I manage that?” Nina replied, her eyes sparkling mischievously, “Have you so little faith in me Wraith?”

  
“In another lifetime you could have been a poet,” Inej quipped, clearly picking up on the unintentional rhyme. “And I have plenty of faith in you! Most people fall on their first time.”

  
“Even legendary Suli acrobats?”

  
“Even legendary Suli acrobats, though they do so less than others.” The shining bright moonlight caught on Inej’s eyes as she spoke, and Nina couldn’t help but think how beautiful they were. Everything about Inej was, the way she moved, her smile that instantly improved anyone’s mood, her general elegance. Nina was irrevocably in love with her, and it was starting to become a problem. She knew Inej probably only saw them as friends, and Nina was willing to except that. But it didn’t quell her own feelings. 

  
“I’m sure,” was all she could manage out loud. Needlessly to say, for someone usually so confident she lost her nerve remarkably quickly. Trying to turn her thoughts away from her feelings, Nina held her arms out and stepped her other foot onto the tightrope. For a moment she balanced perfectly, barely even rocking. It was exhilarating, and she could see why Inej loved it. She was barely a foot off the ground, but it felt like she was flying.   
The sensation did not last very long. Nina slowly pulled her back foot away from the rope it was balancing on, attempting to put it into front of her, and at once the balance was gone. Her arms flailed around her melodramatically, and from her throat erupted an undignified screech. Before she could do anything, she was lying face down on the floor. 

  
“Ouch!” She exclaimed indignantly, nursing her shoulder which had been hit in the fall. With a sigh, she rolled over too her back. “That was fun.”

  
Inej appeared over her, and she almost seemed tall. “You’ve got a strange definition of fun.” Nina started to laugh, but quickly stopped at the aching pain in her ribs. She raised herself up onto her elbows, not bothering to stand. 

  
“I didn’t mean the falling.” She rolled her eyes, “I meant the line. It was – amazing. I get why you love it; it didn’t seem quite as scary in practice. I felt like I was on top of the world. Towering above all my loyal subjects.”  
“So you’re glad you tried it?” 

  
“Well, I’m not about to embark on a career as an acrobat, but yes. It was fun. And I will try again, and try not fall off straight away this time.” Nina replied, a grin spreading on her face as the pain in her shoulder subsided.

  
“I’m glad, it’s nice to do something other than fight and risk our lives for a change,” Inej smiled back. 

  
“You bet it is. I did not earn all that cash to go do more heists. I want to try walking on a wire. It’s fun, and you like it, that makes it extra fun.”

  
“That’s cute.”

  
“You’re cute.” It seemed some of Nina’s usual confidence had returned. 

  
Inej blushed. “So are you.”

  
It was Nina’s turn to go red.

  
“Thank you for teaching me,” She replied after a moment, as smoothly as she could manage.

“Anytime,” Inej replied, smiling. She made a small jump and moments later she was sat on the short cut grass next to Nina. “I couldn’t wait up there forever. Me being the tall one wasn’t right.”

  
Nina giggled in spite of herself, “No it wasn’t. I’m definitely supposed to be the tall one. You’re Inej Ghafa, the tiny yet deadly formidable force.”

  
“I should really start advertising like that…” Inej mused to herself jokingly. 

  
“You know, Inej,” Nina began tentatively. Her heart fluttered in her chest, no, stupid. Don’t do it. Don’t say anything.

  
“I don’t actually?” She replied; a questioning note in her voice.

  
“Um—” Nina cut herself off, if she told Inej how she felt she couldn’t take it back. Then it would be awkward, and they’d both be uncomfortable. This was a terrible idea. She knew it was a terrible idea, but Nina’s brain was not listening to sense. It didn’t matter that her heart was racing in her chest, threatening to beat too fast and cause her death. She was too tense to calm it herself. Being a Heartrender was a dangerous thing. A wrong move and she could stop her own heart. No, not when she was this nervous.

  
“You okay?” Inej questioned, again raising one eyebrow. “Wait, is it actually possible that Nina Zenik is nervous?” 

  
“Maybe,” Nina muttered, Inej as right. Nina didn’t get nervous. She’d flirted her way into and out of countless situations. She’d been in love before. But not like this. This was different to casual flirting. She truly cared about Inej. And this was different to Matthias. This was different, and she was nervous, even if she didn’t want to admit it aloud.

  
“Whatever it is you can tell me; you know that right?” Inej looked concerned now.

  
“Oh! Oh no, it’s nothing like that. Don’t be worried. Or maybe do be worried, you see, the thing is—” She broke off again unsure of how to word it. Inej titled her head to one side interestedly but did not say anything. Nina couldn’t help but be thankful for this, if Inej had said something she could have spooked and legged it away. Probably though the trees and into the tightrope and fallen over. Yes, then Inej would really like her back. Seemed very logical.

  
“Well, okay then. I like you. There, I said it. And it’s totally okay if you don’t like me back, and we can just be friends or whatever you want. And I appreciate that your feelings probably don’t go beyond friendship, so if you want some time away or something that’s cool. But I felt you needed to know because you’re my best friend and I can’t lie to you. I feel false, and that’s not okay. So I suppose this is just me telling the truth in an unconventional and inconvenient way—"

  
“Nina—” Inej began, but the other girls incessant ramblings prevented her from speaking properly. “Nina! NINA!” Finally the shout caught Nina’s attention, and she paused.

  
“Yes?” Nina’s eye widened hopefully; she’d imagined this before. This wasn’t the way she had planned but it could still go well. But Inej probably wouldn’t say yes—

  
“I like you too. So you can stop your rambling about leaving and all that. Stay, stay here with me, for as long as we want.” Inej breathed, her soft voice carrying on the air. Her finally words echoing into Nina’s ears. Stay, stay, stay. For as long as we want. Stay—"

  
“Stay?” Nina repeated; her voice barely audible. Disbelief ran through her, it couldn’t be true, yet it was. The truth for once wasn’t an ugly deceit in disguise, or a horrid pain. It was blissful and thrilling, It was Inej. Inej who liked her, who wanted to be with her. Nina hadn’t believed she could love again after Matthias. She’d believed it was the end. When really, the girl she believed in was beside her all along. Her beautiful reality would not sink in, the pure elation was coursing through her. 

  
“Stay.” Inej echoed one final time. She pushed up onto her knees and looked behind her at the night sky. “It’s fitting really, how beautiful it is, a world under the stars. It’s like their shining just for us. We could wish on each and every one of them.”

  
Nina looked over her shoulder and into the clear night sky. The stars looked like a thousand saints, each divine and beautiful. Each blinking down at them, like a blessing. A hope, with the moon carefully placed among their ranks. Not better, nor more powerful. Just more compassionate, more understanding, closer to them. A welcome pulsing light among the darkness. 

  
“I’m glad I told you.” Nina smiled..

  
“I’m glad I was told.”

  
“Let’s wish on the moon.”

  
“Why?”

  
“She’s closer.”

  
“Unconventional, I like it.” Inej replied softly.

  
So they closed their eyes, looked up into the starlight, and wished.

**Author's Note:**

> so this has been sat in my word document for nearly a year, and I found it the other day and upon editing I decided to post it! I know this kind of revokes the plot of king of scars but in my defence I initial wrote this before it came out. there is a pitifully low amount of ninej content on here so i'm contributing.


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